A 3-year-old British boy was killed on Monday when a folding screen fell on him as he played at a restaurant in Shanghai.

Witnesses say the child, whose family is of Turkish origin, was hit on the head at Kervan Turkish Restaurant in the central business district's Jiujiang Road at 8:10 pm on Monday.

The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The restaurant owner's wife, who gave only her surname, Sun, said on Wednesday that the boy tumbled down and tried to get up by pulling the wooden screen while playing with a 7-year-old girl.

"The screen fell and hit him," Sun said. "It all happened about 4 meters away from us."

She explained that the restaurant's waiter and waitress were called away due to a private party.

"We rushed him to nearby Shuguang Hospital but was told it's not equipped with an emergency room," Sun said. "The boy was then sent to the Huangpu district's Central Hospital, where the nurse told us the hospital couldn't do a craniotomy and that they couldn't help us.

"We didn't waste any time - we arrived at the second hospital by 8:30 pm," she said.

Sun said she called the ambulance hotline but didn't get a response.

"Who knows if he would have survived had they shown up to send us to the right hospital," she added.

A Shanghai radio station quoted Yang Lixin at Central Hospital as saying the boy had stopped breathing by the time arrived at the hospital.

Shanghai Police say they are investigating.